A 20-year-old Vicksburg man is charged with manslaughter in connection with a shooting that killed his 10-year-old half-brother, police said. Another man is also charged in the case, police said.

Advertisement

Vicksburg police said officers found Jerald Tucker Jr., in the living room of his father's house Monday night on Park Avenue. He had been shot in the head, police said. Tucker died at the University of Mississippi Medical Center on Wednesday.

In a news release on Thursday, Vicksburg police said Tucker's brother, Willie Louis Willis, and another man, 21-year-old Joshua Ryan Coffee, were arrested after warrants were issued on Wednesday. Both men have been charged with manslaughter in the case. Coffee is also charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm, police said.

"We're innocent. It was an accident. This is our family," Coffee said as he walked into a court hearing. "We're innocent. Don't let them do us like this."

Witnesses told police Coffee and Willis were handling a small-caliber weapon in the living room of the home while Tucker played a video game, according to the news release. The gun discharged and Tucker was shot in the back of the head, police said.

The gun belongs to Willis, police said. Willis lived at the Park Avenue house with Tucker and father Jerald Tucker, Sr., police said.

Willis told reporters as he got out of a van carrying prisoners that he and Coffee were innocent.

"I knew the little boy since he was 3 years old. They all called me grandma," said Joshua Coffee's grandmother, Eleanor Walls. "Joshua told me that the gun was lying on the table and he asked (if) he could he see it and when he picked it up, it discharged. He said the Willie gave it to him and it went off. I don't know how that happened. But they said (Tucker) was always sitting at the table playing a video game."